Today in Soap Opera History (July 3)

1967: The widows called Dark Shadows' Elizabeth. 1987: Guiding
Light's Lacey & Cam left the Bauer Barbecue via hot air balloon.
2008: Cyndi Lauper visited As the World Turns' Oakdale.
2013: Theresa returned to Days of our Lives' Salem.

"If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree."
― Michael Crichton

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1939: Radio soap opera The Man I Married premiered on NBC Radio. Van Heflin starred as Adam Waring.

1967: On Dark Shadows, Elizabeth (Joan Bennett) heard the voices of the widows calling to her.

1969: On Another World, Rachel (Robin Strasser) tried to convince Russ (Sam Groom) and Mary (Virginia Dwyer) that she wasn't the right person to throw an engagement party for Steve and Alice.

1987: On Guiding Light, Lacey (Zoe Trilling, then known as Geri Betzler) and Cam (Ian Ziering) took a hot air balloon ride. Guiding Light concluded its 50th Anniversary week with a tribute to the Charita Bauer and the Bauer family introduced by Ed Bryce (ex-Bill). It featured the song "Don't Stop Dreaming," performed by Kassie DePaiva (then Kassie Wesley).

2003: On As the World Turns, Jack Snyder (Michael Park) and Carly Tenney (Maura West) got married in Montana.

2006:As the World Turns actor Benjamin Hendrickson died at age 55. Below is an excerpt from the People magazine story that ran shortly after Hendrickson's death

Benjamin Hendrickson won a Daytime Emmy in 2003.

Stephen Hendrickson Jr. painfully recalls the last conversation he had with his uncle Ben—As the World Turns star Benjamin Hendrickson—about a week before the actor committed suicide at 55. "He was being very fatherly to me," says Stephen. "Then he said, 'Stevie, this is a real bad one.'" Hendrickson was referring to his latest bout with depression. "He struggled with it. He had therapy," says Stephen, 38, a pharmaceutical company vice president. "[But] we didn't know this was going to happen." On July 3, police say, Hendrickson fatally shot himself in the head in bed at his Huntington, N.Y., home.

To his colleagues on World, where the Juilliard-trained actor won a 2003 Daytime Emmy as Hal Munson, the lovably gruff chief of detectives he played for 21 years, Hendrickson's death came as "an incredible blow," says executive producer Christopher Goutman. "His character was the heart and soul of the show." Benji, as he was known on-set, "had a wicked sense of humor," says his TV wife, Kelley Menighan Hensley. "He was very gentle. He felt things much deeper—the good and the bad—than most of us."

2008: On As the World Turns, a Gay Pride celebration was held in Oakdale and Cyndi Lauper performed and sang to the Oakdale University crowd, including Luke (Van Hansis) and Noah (Jake Silbermann).

2008: On One Life to Live, Antonio (Kamar de los Reyes), Cristian (David Fumero) and Tina (Andrea Evans) arrived in Mendorra.

2009: Antony Alda, who played Johnny Corelli on Days of our Lives in the early 1990s, died at age 52. He also appeared as Rick Elliot in Knots Landing.